


Medusa's Daughter

by Sinistretoile



Category: Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Winter Soldier (Comics)
Genre: Blood and Violence, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Gorgons (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore), Hydra (Marvel), Mutants, Mythology - Freeform, Mythology References, Non-Graphic Violence, Other, Tumblr Prompt, i suck at writing action scenes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-19
Updated: 2019-08-19
Packaged: 2020-09-07 21:45:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20316490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sinistretoile/pseuds/Sinistretoile
Summary: While with Hydra, Bucky heard rumors about a powerful mutant that lived on a deserted island in the Aegan Sea. Many teams of agent were sent. None returned. In the aftermath of Thanos's Decimation and defeat, the surviving heroes are trying to rebuild and add to their ranks and connections.





	Medusa's Daughter

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tephi101](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tephi101/gifts).

> Done for a Tumblr challenge. I chose Bucky Barnes and the Gorgon. Also...I suck at writing action scenes that don't involve sex.
> 
> And...you should listen to this song during the fight scene. Medusa 'Scarecrow (VIP)' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzqLSZEqKsQ

Bucky remembered the rumors that were whispered through Hydra during his time there. A Greek island that was home to a powerful mutant. They’d sent several teams but none of them came back. The mission transmissions were kept top secret. No one other than high ranking officials and the few technicians that monitored the missions had seen them.  
“I’m telling you there’s nothing on that island, Barnes.”  
“Shut it, Wilson.”  
Sam sighed as he strapped himself into the pilot’s seat. “And what if the rumors are true? What if there’s a powerful mutant there? And it kills you?”  
“Then it kills me, Sam.” Bucky finished adjusting his straps then looked Sam dead in the eyes. “I’m not afraid to die.” He checked over his gun one final time. “But don’t come after me.”  
“Why not?” Sam turned his upper body in the seat.  
“Because you’re only human, Sam. I’m a super soldier with a cybernetic vibranium arm. If it kills me, it will definitely kill you. And easier.” Bucky slapped the button to open the drop doors. “And we need someone to carry the shield.” With a graceful leap, he was swept out into the air stream. He tucked his arms against his sides to aim his body during his free fall. He pulled the chute.

She watched the jet circle the island. A black spot on the clear, open sky. Her nails dug into the column. Chunks of stone popped loose and rained down dust. The unmistakable sound of snakes hissing echoed through the empty courtyard. Something heavy moved over the stone, its movements slow and almost like a sigh. Her slitted pupils constricted. “Hush…He won’t make it far.”

Bucky had landed on the beach. He couldn’t trust that he’d make one of the higher rises safely. He would survive a fall but it would hurt like a bitch. He rolled his chute up and shoved it back into the pack, leaving it propped along a pile of rocks. He stood at the bottom of a daunting stone staircase. The temple sat atop a small mountain…or big hill. Whichever helped the brain process the height.  
With a sigh, he began to climb. He didn’t have to worry about exhaustion or muscle fatigue for a while. Especially if he kept his pace steady. The lifelike statues started the closer he came to the top. All men, all in motion or in agony. And to his raised eyebrow, all nude.  
As Bucky crested the rise, he felt the eyes on him. He couldn’t be sure they meant him harm, but he knew the eyes of predator when he felt them. He moved slowly. Countless statues. Again, all nude men in motion or in agony. They were fleeing something or fighting something, their eyes and mouths open wide in a rictus of terror.  
Something moved in his peripheral vision. He turned slowly to follow it but whatever it was stayed out of his sight. He blinked then squinted his eyes. “Hey, wait a minute.” He stepped up to one of the statues. He recognized the face. It was a Hydra agent that had been sent on missions with him. He looked around the immediate vicinity and he recognized all the statues. They were all Hydra agents. All members of the teams sent to this island.  
Bucky’s handsome face pulled into a frown. His boots ground the dust on the courtyard underneath. Well, he couldn’t say he was sorry to see their end. He slung the rifle over his back. Something moved in his peripheral vision. The dull sound of hissing far below him registered in his brain now that the wind died down. Heavy movement that could only be the slithering of some fuck all big snake lay underneath that.  
A large open, yet darkened archway waited at the back of the temple. He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair then down his face. He wasn’t fond of snakes. He felt the presence before he saw the movement in his peripheral. The dark-haired, olive-skinned woman leaned against one of the statues. She crossed her arms over her chest.  
“I wouldn’t go that way if I were you.”  
“Why’s that?”  
She shrugged. “A death far worse than these fools experienced awaits.”  
Bucky moved away from the archway but did not give it nor the woman his back. “And what death did they experience?”  
“Isn’t it obvious?” Her tone carried one of laughter. Bucky raised his eyebrow. “They were turned to stone.” To emphasize her statement, she pushed off the one she leaned against then shoved it with surprising force. It toppled over and shattered into several large pieces and a cloud of dust.  
“And what death waits below?”  
“Constriction. Being eaten alive. Or being turned into stone. Whatever catches her whimsy.”  
“Her who?”  
“You ask a lot of questions.”  
“I heard rumors of a powerful mutant who lived on this island.”  
“Mutant? That’s what they call us?”  
“What are you?”  
“Mother and I are Gorgons. Though, she lost any semblance of her human form long before she gave birth to me. My father must have loved her greatly…or been terribly desperate.” Her lush red lips twitched. “Or a perverted bastard.”  
Bucky crossed his arms over his chest. “What about all three?” He shrugged, almost nonchalantly.  
She threw her head back and laughed. His heart thumped at the fangs that glistened in the sunlight. Her strange beauty stirred something in him. She had high cheekbones that gave her Mediterranean beauty a serpentine quality, and her laughter had given him a glimpse of a forked tongue. His hindbrain flashed a carnal image of that forked tongue caressing his bare flesh.  
“I like you.”  
“I hope that’s a good thing.”  
“You’re still alive, aren’t you?” They walked toward each other, closing the distance between them. “Who are you?”  
“Bucky.”  
“Damiana.”  
“Lovely.” Her lush, red lips curved into a smile. “Are you and your mother the only ones on this island?”  
“Yes.”  
They regarded each other carefully, closely. “How do I know you’re not lying?”  
“You don’t.”  
“Fair enough.”  
She turned and led him down a cool, shaded portico. “Mother is old and simply wishes to be left alone.”  
“I can understand that.”  
Damiana paused in a doorway, glancing at him over her shoulder. “I am a different story.”  
“And what do you want, doll?”  
“I want to live. To see the world. And come home to visit my mother.” She sighed and dropped onto a stone bench. Sunlight dappled the stones through the leaves of olive and cypress trees. “But I cannot leave her long. She gets lonely. And I'm afraid someone may hurt her or she may allow it to happen."  
Bucky sighed and set down next to her. Not close enough to invade her personal space. "I spent nearly a century in a prison. Two. A literal prison and the prison they created in my mind."  
"They?"  
"Those men in your courtyard. They belonged to an organization bent on world power. They infilatrated secret societies in every people and civilation. Most notably Hilter's Third Reich. They used his rise to power to camoflague their own. But when he and the Nazi Party were defeated, they simply shifted their alliegnance and infiltration to the most powerful countries in the world...Russia which was were I was taken and America where they were able to shape the world into a vision that long survived its visionaries.  
"We're still fighting to clean up the mess they made of this world. Thanos-"  
"Thanatos?"  
Bucky shook his head. "Thanos, ugly purple alien...he collected the infinity stones-" Recognition lit in her eyes and her breath caught in an awed gasp. "-and he- Wait, you've heard of the Stones?"  
Damiana shrugged. "Who hasn't?"  
"A lot of people actually."  
"You forget, my mother is the being referred to in mythology as Medusa."  
"Is that her name?"  
"The only one you'll be able to pronounce."  
"I'm a polyglot. I speak 8 languages and understand 3 more."  
Damiana smirked. "While that's all well and good, Bucky, your tongue is not the desired shape to speak mine and my mother's true names."  
Bucky raised an eyebrow. He swallowed down the burst of desire her mention of his tongue swelled inside him. He looked down at his lap then back into her face. "I work with an organization."  
"The Avengers."  
"Yes, you know them? Us?"  
"Us. I know you, Sergeant Barnes. Just because I live most of my life on this island does not mean I am ignorant." He opened his mouth to protest. "I know you didn't mean to imply. Those men...they say many things to remain alive. They offer me many things. They -DO- many things."  
Bucky tilted his head in confusion. Her smirk fell into a deadpan stare as he took longer to get her implication. She raised an eyebrow at him. The realization finally hit. "Oh."  
She scooted closer and laid her hand on his thigh. "Am I not physically appealing to you?"  
"Oh...you most definitely are, doll. But I-" His forehead scrunched as he frowned. He listened. Helicopter blades beat the air in rapid approach. Damiana started to speak but he laid his finger against her plump lips. She sucked in a breath at the surprisingly intimate touch. "Someone's coming."  
"Who?"  
"Not my friends. Someone else." He brought his rifle around his front and stalked back out to the courtyard, Damiana hot on his heels. A formation of five helicopters approached the island. He recognized the blood red logo on the side. "Hydra."  
"The Hydra? Why would my cousin send these...humans?" She said the word like one would say 'cockroaches'.  
"Not THE Hydra. Hydra. The organization that kept me prisoner. That sent all these men to for you and your mother."  
Angry, rapid hissing sent Bucky's short hairs on end. "If you have protection for your eyes, Sergeant Barnes, I would suggest you wear it." He didn't have to be told twice. He pulled on the goggles that Shuri had made for him.  
Damiana grabbed a hold of the glasses and tore them upwards from her face. And like that. Reality changed. She was no longer this etheral Grecian beauty he'd been conversing with. She was a child of myth. Her slitted eyes bulged out more. Her jaw elongated and unhinged in a visceral hiss, fangs descending and dripping with venom. Her flowing dark hair morphed into an incensed cloud of hissing ohi'a snakes. Females of dark and reddish brown, coiled up and dancing in the air, ready to strike.  
He could have sworn she grinned. He'd never seen anything like her. And he'd seen A LOT of shit. Even the outriders hadn't instilled fear in him the way she did in this moment. Because the outriders were attack dogs. And this terrifyingly beautiful creature at his side was ancient and calculating and intelligent beyond his understanding. SHE was the modern version of her mother.  
She grabbed the closest statue and launched it into the air like a missle. The front helicopter disintegrated it with gunfire but the second one she hurled at them immediately after the first found it's mark on the rotor. Alarms and smoke filled the hair before the heli crashed on the beach.  
Bucky and Damiana followed the helicopters' trajectory around the temple. They watched in a carefully checked fury as at the black insects circled back and hovered above the island. Thick black tactical ropes rained down on them.  
"Sorry, doll." Bucky grabbed the closest rope and wrapped it around his vibranium arm. The Hydra agents shouted a moment before Bucky jerked the rope with a violent snap. The helicopter lurched before it dropped into the temple in a cloud of stone dust and fire. Bucky jumped to the side, shoving Damiana out of the way.  
Then it all happened so fast. Gunfire and screams. Bucky used his fists when the bullets ran out. He saw her moving in his periphery. A serpentine torpedo that tore through men with fang and claw. Her limbs and snakes frowned a twirling vision with the blood spray. Shrieks of abject terror joined the fray as agents began to turn to stone. Gunfire popped from above. The third heli fell like a stone then rolled down the side.  
The Quin Jet zoomed overhead. Damiana's head snapped from it to Bucky, who shrugged. Blood and viscera dropped from her frightening maw. His heart thumped and his cock twitched. If Medusa had looked like that, he could see why a warrior how long ago had fathered her. As fucked up as that was.  
The ground below them rumbled and the statues shook and toppled. "Bucky! Look out!" He covered his head and rolled to the side. The massive reptilian body exploded through the side of the temple. More screams and gunfire filled the air. Dust and musk choked it. Iron and chordite burnt his throat.  
He tapped the com. "Sam! Sam! Don't look at the fucking snake!"  
"What? That's a snake!?"  
"Don't. LOOK. AT IT!"  
"OK ok, man! What- what the fuck-"  
"It's Medusa!"  
"Medusa! Buck, are you shitting me, man?"  
"IT'S FUCKING MEDUSA, ALRIGHT AND DON'T LOOK AT HER!"  
"Alright! Alright! Fuck! What- Whatchu want me to do, old man?"  
"Keep those helicopters off us."  
"You got it." Though Sam was more comfortable dogfighting in his wings, he was more than capable of doing it with a couple helicopters over the Aegan. Bucky rolled to his feet but Damiana's shout made him freeze.  
"Stay there!" He nodded once, flexing his hands. He watched as mother and daughter moved with an ancient sinuous and harrowing grace. Medusa reminded him of renderings of a basilisk combined with a nude giantess. Then as suddenly as it began, it was over. Only the screaming of those turning into stone continued.  
Bucky looked at the stones as Medusa, the mythical beauty herself slithered to a stop in front of him. The end of her tail bumped his chest hard enough for him to take a step back.  
"Mother."  
"This one brought them here." The forked tongue stretched her 's', 'r' and 'o' sounds.  
"No, he didn't."  
"They followed him. Foolish girl."  
"They would have come without me. They are trying to rebuild their power."  
"You dare speak to me, boy!" The debris trembled with her voice."  
"Medusa-" Her tail wrapped around him faster than he could react and tightly. She brought him to her face. Bucky closed his eyes. The goggles might have protected him from Damiana's gaze but he had no such illusions about their protection from Medusa's.  
"That name!"  
"Mother!"  
Medusa's head snapped in her daughter's direction. She gave her an exasperated look. The snake woman regarded Bucky carefully, squinting her slitted eyes. Her frightening mouth twisted into a smile. "Fine." She tossed Bucky at Damiana's feet. "Fuck him or feast on him. He's yours."  
"Mother!"  
Medusa slithered over to a Hydra agent that was slowly bleeding out. Her tail wrapped around his ankle. He screamed and scrabbled for purchase as she dragged him along behind her through the massive hole she'd made in the temple wall.  
"Should we...?"  
"No." Damiana put her glasses on over her eyes but the snakes and her serpentine features remained. Bucky got to his feet. "You are free to go, Bucky." Damiana tilted her head up at him. "Unless you wanna fuck."  
Bucky startled then burst out laughing. "I would like that very much, doll. But not right now."  
Damiana shrugged. Human sensibilities. "I'll accept that."  
"I'd love to take you out some time, doll."  
"You're serious."  
Bucky ducked his head. "Now would be where the old me would tuck a lock of your hair behind your ear but I think I'd get bit if I tried that." She giggled. And it did things to him. "Dinner. Dancing-" She surprised him by grabbing one of the straps of his flack jacket and crashing their lips together.


End file.
